Work Backwards

Last week some of the students in my class were talking about how they were looking forward to 6th grade. Fifthgraditis has apparently set in just 5 weeks into the school year. I kindly reminded them that they may want to focus on getting through 5th grade first. I found it funny yet so many times I find myself doing something similar. I focus on where I want to be and don’t actually think about where I am. Sure it is great to have goals and dreams, and I am really good at that part. But we also need to take a look a where we are at. It is pretty hard to get to the goal if you don’t know where you are starting.

One great thing about taking some time to think about where you are is it can help you figure out what steps you need to take and how you should manage your time. I’m not sure that time management will ever be something I am extremely great at. When I did my internship at Charisma Church we were required to use a planner. I’ve used one ever since but am not always doing the best job with it. Which isn’t good because if I don’t write something down it doesn’t happen. One of the things I found myself saying often is, “Can you email me that so I don’t forget?” I have to set reminders in my phone to take allergy medicine or I’ll forget.

Surveying where you are helps you to be realistic about when you will achieve your dreams. You might be in an amazing band, but if you have never played a live show you shouldn’t expect to be headlining a show at Madison Square Garden in the next year. I may want to grow my average readers by 100%, but I can’t expect that to happen overnight (especially with an inconsistent posting schedule). But knowing where I am will help me to know what to do. The last 6 months, I’ve been able to take a real look at my life and figure out what things I want to make a priority. I’ve been able to take some steps towards some of my dreams, and there are others I paused. There are things that I was making a priority that got pushed down the list and there are things that were bumped up. I’ve also been able to set some realistic next steps in moving towards my dreams.

Recently my friend, Heather Parady, released an online course about time management. Heather is super passionate about time management, which is odd to me because I find it a necessary evil. But that is why God gave us all different passions and it is great that she has that one so she can help people like me. Her course is called Work Backwards and it is fantastic. She was generous enough to shoot a video to give my readers a sneak peek of the course.

So if you are like me and need some help with time management or maybe just some new strategies to attack some goals you have, head over to HeatherParady.com and check out her course. Don’t forget to use the promo code iamnickspindler to get 10% off! And just so you know, I am not getting a kick-back if anyone registers. I really think her course will benefit people and am excited to be able to share it for her. I’m passionate about helping people pursue the things God has called them to and time management is a very practical piece of that.